Sometimes You Gotta Lose

[Alison]

Finally, a new recording! The idea for this song came to me when a local up-start kid started playing guitar and suddenly decided he was a pro and songwriter(big fish, small pond). My thoughts were. . .before you call yourself a pro, you gotta pay some dues!

Well, it kind of evolved to a song for me. . .sometimes you gotta lose, before you win. More of a "hang in there, baby" type song.

Anyway, I'm not really sure about this one. I think I need to re-track the cello lines. Did them all with my electric and am not sure whether I like the sound or not. But before I put any more work into the song, I thought I'd get your take on it.

Sometimes You Gotta Lose.mp3

[CrowsofFritz]

Some noise is in the beginning, sounds kinda neat, though!

GREAT vocals here. This may be the best vocals I’ve heard from you yet. Is that a horn or a fellow playing high notes on the left side?

[Alison]

Some noise is in the beginning, sounds kinda neat, though!

GREAT vocals here. This may be the best vocals I’ve heard from you yet. Is that a horn or a fellow playing high notes on the left side?

Thanks! No horns, just my electric cello. That's what I meant when I was talking about re-tracking the cello lines. . .do it with my acoustic rather than the electric. Can't seem to get the "horn" sound out!

[rayc]

Proverbs n Axioms by Alison...
Not the message youngster want and will listen to of course but axiomatic nevertheless.
Regarding the cello augmentation...I'm not convinced it's necessary. The song has a blues feel, and the basic playing is dynamic enough. I'd probably drop the cello on the left - the higher one - and let it flow.
Really good melody, succinct, strong lyric and good performances Alison...I enjoyed it.

[Alison]

Proverbs n Axioms by Alison...
Not the message youngster want and will listen to of course but axiomatic nevertheless.
Regarding the cello augmentation...I'm not convinced it's necessary. The song has a blues feel, and the basic playing is dynamic enough. I'd probably drop the cello on the left - the higher one - and let it flow.
Really good melody, succinct, strong lyric and good performances Alison...I enjoyed it.

yeah, well, I'm going to be a grandma soon so, I guess this is practice for the new grandbaby! Glad you like the song, I'm kind of in the middle about it. . .

I'm not sure I want to vanquish the left cello altogether, I'd miss the run-up during "Sometimes you gotta lose". I might re-track it using my acoustic to see if that gets rid of the "horn" sound. That's the biggest problem when I record with my electric cello, no matter what I do with Eq, it still sounds like a horn. Sometimes it works, in this case, it doesn't.
Thanks for listening!

[stratmonkee]

Yes very good vocal on this, like your voice vibrato, very nice as final word on your vocal lines decay. Enjoyed the listen!

[Lt. Bob]

not sure if I'm hearing it with the hight part or not but I like what I'm hearing right now.
Really like the high part/harmony string parts on the right.

Nice vocals as always ......

Love me some Alison tunz ...... !

[vomitHatSteve]

I kind of like the synth-horn sounding high cello. Run with the weird sounds, why not?

Mix wise, my major critique would be that the right side of the mix sounds way more bassy (on headphones). Do you have the bass cello leaning a little right? The rest of the right instrumentation also sounds a fair amount darker and more in the lower mids than the left channel. If you had the bass lean a little left, it might balance out.

[CeeBee]

Could be straight out of Bert Brecht, it conjures up a dark wet alley somewhere London. Nice vocals, nice all round.

[Alison]

I kind of like the synth-horn sounding high cello. Run with the weird sounds, why not?

Mix wise, my major critique would be that the right side of the mix sounds way more bassy (on headphones). Do you have the bass cello leaning a little right? The rest of the right instrumentation also sounds a fair amount darker and more in the lower mids than the left channel. If you had the bass lean a little left, it might balance out.

Pretty sure I have the bass centered but, I'll listen with a more discerning ear. I try to not have all high registers on one side and all lows on the other so, I'll definitely check that out too, thanks. . . a weird song deserves weird sounds

[Alison]

Yes very good vocal on this, like your voice vibrato, very nice as final word on your vocal lines decay. Enjoyed the listen!

Thank you SO much for listening! I'm going to have to go back and see what I did with the vocals, started this recording quite some time ago!

[Alison]

not sure if I'm hearing it with the hight part or not but I like what I'm hearing right now.
Really like the high part/harmony string parts on the right.

Nice vocals as always ......

Love me some Alison tunz ...... !

You are so kind and so sweet! Thank you for listening and chiming in!

[Alison]

Could be straight out of Bert Brecht, it conjures up a dark wet alley somewhere London. Nice vocals, nice all round.

Thanks! I had to look up Bert Brecht, I guess the tone of the song is a bit dark. . .

[vomitHatSteve]

I kind of like the synth-horn sounding high cello. Run with the weird sounds, why not?

Mix wise, my major critique would be that the right side of the mix sounds way more bassy (on headphones). Do you have the bass cello leaning a little right? The rest of the right instrumentation also sounds a fair amount darker and more in the lower mids than the left channel. If you had the bass lean a little left, it might balance out.

Pretty sure I have the bass centered but, I'll listen with a more discerning ear. I try to not have all high registers on one side and all lows on the other so, I'll definitely check that out too, thanks. . . a weird song deserves weird sounds

I wonder if the bass just sounds like it's right because it blends more into the right channel than it does on the left?

[TripleM]

Almost a Bond-song feel. At least in spots.

Vocal recording, as always, is crystal clear.

Bass sound is all low end - no low-midrange or anything above.

I think it's an acoustic guitar on the left? Or Electric/Acoustic? Anyway, after a while I decided that I liked it. I wasn't sure at first. But after a while it grew on me.

Fiddle recordings sounded great.

[Alison]

Almost a Bond-song feel. At least in spots.

Vocal recording, as always, is crystal clear.

Bass sound is all low end - no low-midrange or anything above.

I think it's an acoustic guitar on the left? Or Electric/Acoustic? Anyway, after a while I decided that I liked it. I wasn't sure at first. But after a while it grew on me.

Fiddle recordings sounded great.

Thank you, @TripleM! I'm kind of on the fence with this song too. . .funny you should mention the "Bond" feel, that's exactly what my husband said when he first heard it!
Still have some work to do on it (like checking the bass eq!) but I did check out the fx on my vocals and, for the life of me, can't figure out what I did that was any different from other vocals. Hmm. . . and, yes, my acoustic (Ovation acoustic/electric) is on the left, electric on the right.
Thanks for listening and commenting!

[JD01]

My main critique of this is that the acoustic guitar sounds well piezoish! Can you record this properly with a nice mic?

[Alison]

My main critique of this is that the acoustic guitar sounds well piezoish! Can you record this properly with a nice mic?

I know what you mean. . .may try a different setup for it. Tried using my electric for both guitar tracks but, that didn't sound right either. . .it'll be a while before I get back to the studio though. . .

[liv_rong]

I really like this. Any chance I can get a version with out drums so I can play along?

[musicturtle]

@Alison

I like tune a lot as well. I agree with James above about the guitars. I hear a jangly electric single coil style guitar with some tremolo on it.